Apparatus for delivering and receiving mail.



W. KREANNER. I APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING AND RECEIVING MAIL.

AIPLIUATION TILED MAR. 10, 1909. I 1 923,977, Patented June 8,1909.

3 mums-SHEET nuenfoz attozgmgn W. KREANNER. APPARATUSFOR DELIVERING AND RECEIVING MAIL.

APPLICATION FILED MAR, 10, 1909.

Patented June 8 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

A w. KREANNBR. APPARATUS FOR. DELIVERING AND RECEIVING MAIL.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 10, 1909.

Patented June 8, 190

a SHEETS-SHEET 1min: use:

mw%' am 50 thereon, the crane lock being shown in set WILLIAM KREANNER, OF RIPLEY, OHIO.

i no. 923,977.

e To all tohom it may concern:

APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING AND RECEIVING MAIL.

Specification of Letters Patent,

' Patented June 8, 190.9.

Application filed. March 10, 1909. Serial no. 485,436.

Be it known that I, WILLIAM KREANNER, a' citizen of the United States, residing at Ripley, in the county of Brown and State of hio, have invented a new and "useful Appafratus for Delivering and Receiving Mail,

1; of'which the following is a specification.

tive view ofthe; com

This invention relates to apparatus for dehveri ng and receiving mail, the same being of that type used for effecting an interchange of mail between-moving mail cars and stations along the route traveled by the cars.

Tl e objectof-the invention is to provide a crane of novel form for supporting a mail ha in such a manner as to permit its ready delivery, said crane also having means for engaging a bag -supporting ring without danger of the bagbecoming accidentally displaced and dropping to the ground.

Afurtherrobject is to provide a crane of this type designed 'to be mounted upon a mail' car and, to swing automatically into the car subseqiient to the interchange of mail and tof be automatically swung outwardly, beyond'the wall of car before the interchan e of mail is effected. p I

A urther-object is to provide novel means for locking the crane in either of its two positions, said lock being under the control of a tri ping, device clocated close to the track an separate from the car.

Another object is. to utilize cJiluid under pressure for the purpose of a,uati11g the crane, said 'fiuid being preferably compressed air such as used in air-brake systems.

With these and other objectsyinview the invention consists incertain novel details of construction and combinations of parts hereinafter more. fully described and pointed out in the claims-'7 1 1 In theaccompanyingfirawings the preferred form of the invention has been shown. In said 'd'raw'ingsp-eFigure 1 is a perspec lete' apparatus f consti tuting the present invention, the variousparts being shown in the relative positions assumed by them immediately prior 'to the interchange of mail'.' Fig. 2 1s a side elevation of a port ionof a carand the mechanism tion' and the crane being extended outs? wardlv beyond the car' wall. Fig. 3 is a upon the arms. Secured to the lower between vertical transverse section through a portion of a car and showing the mechanism partly in. elevation and partly in section,

one of the positions of the crane being indi-- cated by dotted lines. Fig. 4 is an enlarged section on line AB Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is an elevation of the crane lockin bolt, the guide plate and the movable disk ing shown in section. Fig. 6 is a side elevation of the pitman actuated wheel and the eccentric adjacent thereto. Fig. 7 is a view partly in side elevation and partly in section of a portion of one of the ba receiving devices.

Referring to the gures by characters of reference A designates a platform at a station and extending upwardly therefrom is a standard 1 to the'upper portion of which is adjustably secured a ring 2 having an arm 3 outstanding therefrom. This arm is provided at its outer end with an inverted U- shaped member 4 to the ends of which are secured parallel arms 5, said arms extending.

from both endsof the member and onelo thearms being provided at its ends with outturned retainlng springs 6. desi ned to prevent accidental displacement o a bag-supporting ring 7 after said ring has been placed ortion of the standard 1' is another ring 8 raving an arm 9extending therefrom, said arm belng provided with an upturned end portion 10 havin a bowed bag-engagin 'member 11 secure to the lower portiont ereof,

while mounted. on the upper portion of the upturned end l0 is another bag-engaging member 12.v This last mentioned member has dogs13 pivotally connected to its ends 7 and the free ends of the dogs are designed to rest "normally upon the member 11. Said member 11 is so shaped as to prevent the dogs from moving in one directlon to such permit the escape of a bag an extent as to from between themembers 11 and 12 after the bag has'been placed in position there The car structure B has a standard 14 mounted for rotation within the door open- ;ing 6 and extending from the upper portion of this standard 14is anarm 15 similar to thearm 9 and provided with an upturned fouter end portion 16 on which are mounte upper and lower bag-engaging members 17 and 18respectively, the lower member 18' locking bolt such as illustrated in detail of the car body B and the rod 31 of a being bowed and constituting an abutment for dogs '19 which are pivotally connected to the end portions of the member 17. Another arm20 extends outwardly from the lower portion of the standard 14 and is provided at its outer end with an inverted yoke 21 to the lower ends of which are secured parallel oppositely extending arms 22,'one'arm being provided at each end with an outturned retaining spring 23. By referring to the drawings it will be seen that this arm 20 and the parts connected thereto are similar in all respects to the arm 3 and the parts thereon. The bag-engaging members 17 and 18 are so disposed when extended beyond the car structure B, as to travel between the arms 5 on the stationary bag-delivering memher, and the arms 22 are so-arranged when the crane is extended beyond the car structure, as to receive between them the bagenga ing members 12 and 11 carried by the stan ard 1.

The standard 14 extends through the floor that portion thereof below the car floor is provided with upper and lower spaced mutilated pin tooth gears 24 and 25 respectively, the pins upon the said gears being designed to be alternately engaged by the pins on a mutilated 'pin tooth gear 26 which is. arranged at one end of a shaft 27 journaled within hangers extending downwardly from thebottom of the ear structure. This shaft 27 hasa wheel 28 at one end provided with a wrist-pin 29 on which is mounted a pitman 30 designed to transmit motion to the wheel and shaft from piston mounted to reciprocate within a cylinder 32 disposed upon the bottom of the car. This cylinder is provided with an ordinary slide valve (not shown) the rod 33 of the valve being actuated by an eccentric 34 which rotates with the shaft 27. A ipe opens into the valve casing 36 and is esigned to convey fluid under pressure to the casing from any suitable source.

A disk 37 rotates with the standard 14 and is located below the car bottom, said disk being provided at diametrically opposed points with apertures 38 and 39, either one of which is designed to receive a in Fig. 5. This bolt consists of a stem 40 slidably mounted within a guide plate 41 and provided at one end with a U-shaped extension 42, the free end of which is designed to project into one of the openings 38 and 39 and thus hold the disk 37 against movement. A spring 43 is mounted upon the stem 40 and bears upwardly against the plate 41 and dijiwnwardly upon a pin 44 extending through the stem 40, this spring thus serving to hold the upper end of the bolt normally in engagement with the disk. The lower end of the stem tdcarries a roller which is held crane mounted adjacent the track. as the roller 45 moves upwardly on the triparranged close .to one of the rails of: the

track. A supporting bracket 47 may he secured to the car body so as to constitute a guide for the stem 4-0 as indicated especially in Figs. 1 and 2. It is to be understood that when the-crane upon the car is in its normal position the arms 15 and 20 extend inwardly into the car structure as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 3. lVhile the parts are thus located a ring such as indicated at 48 may be placed around the arms 22 and a bag suspended therefrom as shown in Fig. 1. The spring 23 upon one of the arms will act to prevent accidental displacement of the ring 48.

When the car approaches a station where the mail is to be delivered the roller 15 moves against and rides over the tripping plate 46 located at the near side of the stationary As soon ping plate 46 the upper or looking end 42 of the stem 40 is lifted out of the opening 39 in which it is seated and as the valve in casing 36 is opened the fluid under pressure will rush into the cylinder 32 and drive the piston therein in one direction so as to prod ucc a one quarter rotation of the shaft 27 after which the eccentric 34 will shift the valve within casing 36 so as to cause the piston within cylinder 32 to move in the opposite direction and produce an additional one quarter turn of the shaft 27. As soon as the one half rotation of the shaft produced by these two strokes of the piston has been completed the spring-controlled stem 10 will be forced downwardly so as to bring its end i2 into the other opening 88 within the disk. Further operation of the piston and the shaft 27 is thus prevented. It is of course to beunderstood that the disk receives its motion from the shaft 27 through the pin tooth gears 24 and 25, and when the standard 14 and the disk 87 have completed their one half revolution so as to bring the arms 15 and 20 beyond the wall of the car structure B, the pins upon-the upper gear 2-1 are brought into position to be engaged by the pins on the gear 26 during the next half rotation ot said gear.

As heretofore stated the foregoing operation swings the stapdard 14 so as to bring the arms 15 and 20 r'eyond the car structure as shown in Figs.- 1 and 3. As the car passes the Shit ionary cran the arms 22 move along opposite sides of the hag-receiving members 11 and 12 and the ring carried by the arms 22 move between said members and pushes the adjoining dog 13 upwardly. This dop promptly falls back to its normal position and accidental removal of the ring fro etween membersll and 12 is thus positively prevented. Should a ring 7 be suspended from the arms t5, the members 17 and 18 will pass between the arm v \vhile the foregoing operation is taking place, and said ring 7 will thus pass between. the members 17 and 18 so that the bag carried by itwill be transferred to the member 18. After the car passes the stationary crane the roller 45 passes over a second tripping plate 48 and the disk 37 thus a second time released and the fluid under pressure Within the cylinder 32 therefore operates'to impart a one-half revolution to the shaft 27 and the gear 26 therefore engages-the gear 24 and imparts a one-half rotation to the standard 14, this resulting. in the arms and swinging back into the bar structure B and carryin with them the bag that has been deliv'ere thereto. 1 It will be seen that this mechanism is auto matic in all of its operations, the only attention required being that of placing a bag upon the arms 22. and removing the collected bag from between the members 17 an d 18. As soon as the interchange of mail has been effected those parts. of the apparatus projecting beyond the car swing automatically back into the car, and the remain there until just prior to the arrival of the car opposite a point where the interchange of mail is to occur. There is therefore no danger of these projecting parts'coming into contact with passing trains and the like.

Obviously various changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit or sacrificing the advantages of the invention. For example, a stop-lug 37 may be extended radially from the disk 37 and move against oppositely disposed studs 38 for the purpose of limiting the movement ofthe crane.

\Vhat is claimed is 1. The combination with a can structure, of a crane mounted for partial rotation thereon, power mechanism for actuating'the crane, means for locking thc'crane against movement, and means for automatically -releasing the crane at a redetermined point during the movement of the .car.

2. The combination with aPcar structure, of a crane mounted for partial rotation thereon, power mechanism uponthe ,car structure for successively swinging the crane beyond the structure and returning it therevto, means for automatically locking the said mechanism immediately subsequent to each of said movements, and means for automatically unlocking the mechanism atv predetermined points during the movement of the car.

3. The combination witha car structure, of a. crane mounted for partial rotation thereon, and power mechanism carried by .arm, and paralle 923,977 I i a said structure for successively swinging the of a crane movably mounted thereon, means for automatically actuating the crane to proj ect it either beyond the car structure or into said structure, locking members normally cooperating to hold the crane against the action of said operating means, a relatively fixed tripping member, and means carried by one of the locking members for engaging the tripping member to release the crane.

6. The combination with a car structure, of a crane movably mounted thereon, a revoluble shaft, means actuated by the shaft when rotated in one direction to rock the crane, mechanism for automatically actuating the shaft, cooperatinglocking members for holding the shaft and crane against movement, and a tripping device in the path of one of said members for actuating the member to release the crane and shaft. 9 i 7. The combination with a car structure, of a crane mounted for partial rotation therein, an apertured member movable with the crane, a springc'ontrolled locking member normally engaging said movable member to hold the crane against movement, a revoluble shaft, means upon the shaft and crane for transmitting a rocking movement to the cranefrom the rotating shaft, means for automatically actuating the shaft when released from the locking means, and a tripping device for unlockin the shaft and the crane at a predetermined point during the movement of the car.

8. In mechanism of the class described a mail-receiving member comprising a sut porting structure, spaced upper and lower bag-receiving members carried thereby, said lower member having an intermediate bowed portion, and retaining dogs pivotally connected to the ends of the upper member and bearing against the bowed portion of the lower member, retaining means, the ends of the lower member being extended beyondthe corresponding ends of the upper member.

9. In mechanism of the class described a bag-delivering device comprising a supporting structure, an arm outstanding therefrom, an inverted U-sha ed member carried by the arms supported by the U-shaped-member. Y

said dogsconstituting bag & 923,977

10. In apparatus of the class described In testimony that I claim the foregoing bag-delivering mechanism eon'lprising a supas my own, 1 have hereto afiixed my signaperting structure, an inverted U-shap'ed ture in the presence of two Witnesses.

member carried thereby, parallel arms sup- WILLIAM KREANNER. 5 ported by the U-shaped member, and retain- Witnesses:

mg springs outstanding from one of the E. HUME TALBERT,

arms.

E. DANIELS. 

